Taito blows bubbles

We chat with game director Tsuyoshi Tozaki about bringing back Taito’s iconic bubble dragon brothers

- Tsuyoshi Tozaki

You couldn’t walk into a chip shop in the ’80s without seeing a Taito coin-op sitting blipping away in the corner of the room. The Japanese developer’s name was once uttered with the same reverence as those of other great arcade game manufactures like Konami, Capcom, and Namco. From Space Invaders to Rainbow Islands, Taito owned the arcades. On PS4 the company has been silent. Until now.

The shy developer rarely does an interview outside of Japan, but this issue we sit down with Tsuyoshi Tozaki, the director of Bubble Bobble 4 Friends (a remake of the classic ’80s coin-op), to discover why now is the time bubbles are blowing up.

On PS4 Taito is looking at releasing a collector’s edition featuring rare art and insights from the series’ history, among other goodies. And what of PS5? “We’ll consider it,” is the answer.

OPM: Is there a pressure of expectation when updating one of the company’s classic games?

Tsuyoshi Tozaki: Of course, I felt a lot of pressure, because Bubble Bobble is one of the big iconic titles. Because it was my first title as a director and I felt so much pressure, I thought I might transform into a bubble dragon!

It also made me very happy to make an updated version, because I played the Famicom Disc System version of Bubble Bobble with my elder brother when I was a child. My parents and brother are also so glad that I made the new game in the series. When making the game, we took care to create something that would satisfy fans of the original version, while also making sure that the bubble action is easy to do and feels good. We tried to make the controls not too ‘old style’, and to make it interesting for the people today.